Socialist darling and New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez announced yesterday she will defy Democratic leadership and vote against a Pelosi-backed House rules package.
The 29-year-old first-time lawmaker wrote on Twitter, “Tomorrow I will also vote No on the rules package, which is trying to slip in #PAYGO. PAYGO isn’t only bad economics, as @RoKhanna explains; it’s also a dark political maneuver designed to hamstring progress on healthcare+other leg. We shouldn’t hinder ourselves from the start.”
Tomorrow I will also vote No on the rules package, which is trying to slip in #PAYGO.
PAYGO isn’t only bad economics, as @RoKhanna explains; it’s also a dark political maneuver designed to hamstring progress on healthcare+other leg.
We shouldn’t hinder ourselves from the start. https://t.co/WW3UaBs7vh
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) January 2, 2019
According to Fox News, the pay-go rule “would require that any new mandatory spending for entitlements or tax cuts be offset by other separate revenue increases (such as tax hikes) or budget-cutting measures so that the new spending does not expand the federal deficit.”
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) first stated he would vote against the package, tweeting, “I will be voting NO on the Rules package with #PayGo. It is terrible economics. The austerians were wrong about the Great Recession and Great Depression. At some point, politicians need to learn from mistakes and read economic history. @paulkrugman @StephanieKelton @RBReich.”
Consider asking @danpfeiffer @StephanieKelton @paulkrugman @JosephEStiglitz @SandyDarity about the policy and the politics. Anyone who has studied the economic literature of the Great Recession knows the austerians have been discredited!
— Ro Khanna (@RoKhanna) January 2, 2019
So far, only Ocasio-Cortez and Khanna have publicly come out against the rules package that includes the pay-go provision. A total of 218 representatives must vote ‘yes’ to pass the new rules, meaning that ordinarily, 18 Democrats would need to vote against the rules package in order for it to fail. However, one Republican has said he will support Pelosi’s package, which would raise the needed number of Democratic defectors to 19 to kill the proposal.”
Dan slammed Cortez’s announcement, tweeting “Apparently, paying for govt with current tax revenue is now ‘bad economics.’ This is a statement so devoid of reason that rational people will struggle to grasp how a lawmaker would dare utter it.”
I’ve been doing my best to ignore this nonsense but it’s entirely out of hand. Apparently, paying for govt with current tax revenue is now “bad economics.” This is a statement so devoid of reason that rational people will struggle to grasp how a lawmaker would dare utter it. https://t.co/jjuNq3Ioc8
— Dan Bongino (@dbongino) January 3, 2019
